


The Price of Love

by PhantomAngelofMusic



Category: Den lille Havfrue | The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Andersen
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:14:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24301159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomAngelofMusic/pseuds/PhantomAngelofMusic
Summary: Dark, dark AU version of The Little Mermaid. Non Disney, Non Canon, One Shot.
Kudos: 3





	The Price of Love

Shuddering violently, her eyes snapped open. A sense of heightening panic flooding her body. She tried to draw in a breath, but she choked on water, her dark green-blue hair swirling around her as blood poured from her mouth.

She couldn't breathe! But why-?! Her hands jerked up reaching for her throat, searching for her gills, but only hard, sealed lines remained. She opened her mouth to scream, but only more blood arose.

Kicking violently, she jerked, glancing down. That's right... She had legs, but only just. Once her fins had been sliced apart to create legs, they'd been stitched together with long strands of kelp, for one last journey.

Her eyes rolled white in her skull, as she swam with everything she was worth, the sound of the sea witch's evil cackling deafening to her ears.

Her lungs burned, she feared they would burst, but she had to make it. She just had to!

As she broke the surface, she glanced around frantically, the sounds of her sister's fatal, enchanted songs leading her to the slowly sinking ship. The salt of the sea burned her wounds, and she knew sharks would be trailing her soon, for, even with the kelp stitching, she was bleeding heavily.

Forcing herself onward, she swam to the ship, ripping a chunk of wood loose to serve as a crude raft. Climbing the banister, she searched quickly, and at last spied his unconscious form hidden behind a beam. Grabbing his hand, she dove into the water, pushing him onto the raft, as she clung to the ship, desperately trying to catch her breath as she watched her sisters; fins and legs entwined, lips and arms locked in a fatal embrace as they dragged their chosen victims to the dark fathoms below.

Climbing once more to the ship, searching hopelessly for a lifeboat, she could feel her strength waning.

Tied off in the distance, she spied one, oars intact, but with a hole in the bottom. Groaning as she tugged it free, it landed with a splash, sending her prince sliding into the inky depths for a moment. Hefting him back on his raft, she dragged him, and the broken dingy to a sand bar, and gratefully climbed ashore.

Turning the boat over, she dove one last time into the water, returning with a slimy sort of eel, which she quickly dispatched with a stone.

Curled around him, she began the agonizing task of freeing her legs. They twitched, salty tears burning her eyes, as the bleeding became worse.

Tieing a knot in the strands she braided them, coated them in the eel slime, and plugged the hole with it, before dumping handfuls of sand into it.

As she slid him gently into the boat, resting the oars into his arms and the boat into the water, she used the last of her strength to pull herself over him, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead. Tears flooded her face, it was not enough, he had not roused, did not know her, and thus could not love her and break the witch's spell.

Smiling sadly at him, as her arms gave out, and she slid silently into the water.

_**Fin** _


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